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Nearly eight months after Eastman Kodak Co. said it was studying “strategic alternatives” for its Health Group, we finally get something vaguely resembling news on that topic: expect an announcement no later than Feb. 8.

From a Kodak press release:

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 27 – Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) today provided details on its previously announced annual strategy meeting with investors scheduled for February 8, 2007 in New York City, and its planned fourth quarter 2006 earnings announcement.

Kodak also indicated that it is making significant progress in completing its study of strategic alternatives for its Health Group, as well as final preparations for launch of its inkjet initiative. The company expects to make public announcements on both programs in early 2007.

“Our intention to meaningfully participate in the inkjet market and our decision to define a new strategic direction for our Health Group are understandably of interest to our investors, and I am mindful of our commitment to provide updates on both of these initiatives by the end of this year,” said Antonio M. Perez, Kodak Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We are pleased with our progress to date and we fully expect to make definitive announcements on both of these important business initiatives on or before February 8.

“As we proceed through the exploration of strategic alternatives for our Health Group, the interests of our customers and employees are of primary focus. As always, we will continue to meet the needs of our customers in the same high-quality fashion that they have come to expect from Kodak,” said Perez.

Reading through the Corporatespeak, that means roughly, “We haven’t forgotten about this.” That’s slightly hard to believe, based on Kodak’s displays at recent vendor expos, which suggested business as usual. Hardly reassuring for potential customers, which probably is why the Health Group went on the block in the first place.

I’ve let quite a lot of e-mails pile up the last few weeks, and a few I even had to rescue from Gmail’s spam filter.

In catching up with all the messages, I’ve learned a lot.

For one thing, payer-side software vendor MEDecison (MEDE) went public Dec. 13 at $10 a share, down from previously announced ranges of $14 to $16 and then $11.50 to $13.50. The price fluctuated between $9.04 and $10.24 on the first day of trading on the Nasdaq), but has come back either to or slightly above the $10 IPO level every day until Thursday, when it closed at $9.89 (on extremely low volume). Track the historical prices here, then check out this less-than-glowing assessment from the Motley Fool.

MEDecision certainly seems to be doing better than Merge Healthcare, which adjourned its annual shareholders’ meeting Monday in Milwaukee for lack of a quorum. The company plans on trying again on Dec. 28. I’ve been getting this company’s press releases for a long time, but have never written about Merge before. All I know is that the company was in bankruptcy, is now out, and has combined Merge eFilm, Cedara Software and eMed Technologies into two units, called Merge Healthcare and Merge eMed. They apparently are big in imaging but not in other areas of health IT, and seem to have some Canadian management because the stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (MRGE) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (MRG). Should I be paying attention or not?

Just in time for Christmas (ok, not really, it was published in September), comes a book with the cheery title, “Medicare Meets Mephistopheles,” from Cato Institute scholar David A. Hyman. The Libertarian think tank’s Web site describes the tome thusly: “Medicare’s devilish details demonstrate its success at encouraging the Seven Deadly Sins — Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony and Lust — and at undermining the virtues of thrift and honesty.” Former CMS boss Tom Scully has said Medicare is a price-fixing operation, but I don’t believe he ever went all Faustian on us. Personally, I’m curious how Medicare inspires lust. Oh wait, here it is: “Medicare makes Democrats lust for socialized medicine, while its imperviousness to reform makes Republicans angrier and angrier.”

Further to the left on the political spectrum, Joe Trippi, the brains behind the Howard Dean Internet fundraising juggernaut, has joined the Archimedes Movement , the organization founded by former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, M.D., to push progressive (but not single-payer) approaches to healthcare reform. Health IT types may remember Kitzhaber’s inspiring and highly persuasive speeches at the 2006 HIMSS conference last February and the eHealth Initiative’s Health IT Summit in September. Whether his ideas gain any traction in Washington is another story for another day.

(Notice how I avoided saying “conservative” and “liberal” in talking about Cato and Archimedes. I’d never make it as a pundit.)

And finally, here are some results of a survey of readers of the daily e-mail “SmartBrief” from America’s Health Insurance Plans. (I had a bunch of these to catch up with in the last few days.)

In your opinion, which of the following developments was the most significant in 2006?51% — New Medicare drug benefit program19% — Consumer-directed plans13% — Efforts to cover the uninsured11% — Electronic health care initiatives6% — Walk-in clinics in retail settings

Lastly, I’ve had the great fortune in the last week and a half to interview or chat with four giants in patient safety and/or IT, namely Drs. Don Berwick, Larry Weed, Lucian Leape and Ron Pion (and people wonder why I attend so many conferences). I’ve written a couple of stories already, here and here. Look forward to some interesting stuff in the new year.

From the Department of Better Late than Never comes this podcast, recorded two weeks ago, in advance of the first-ever Healthcare Blogging Summit, which was held Dec. 11 in Washington, D.C. But thanks to my crazy schedule, this interview was not posted until Dec. 15 in a Florida hotel room. Most of the information is still relevant. Promise.

In this interview, Dmitriy Kruglyak, creator of the Medical Blog Network, a healthcare-focused publication in a blog format, talks with me about the growth of blogging in healthcare and explains his current project, the HealthTrain Manifesto. Essentially, it’s a statement of integrity guidelines for the highly unstructured world of grass-roots healthcare media.

0:50 Explanation of the Medical Blog Network2:35 Healthcare Blogging Summit3:40 Blogging’s effect on consumers and on healthcare organizations5:20 The changing dynamics of information dissemination5:51 Grass-roots transparency and how to respond to it6:36 Speakers at the summit8:47 Harnessing the power of the Web and new concepts on the Internet11:25 Growth of individuals publishing information online12:52 Power of blogging in other industries13:45 Transformation of the role of traditional media14:28 Blogging’s growth in healthcare16:50 Evolution of the Internet in healthcare18:37 HealthTrain Manifesto19:21 Roots of it in ClueTrain Manifesto (late 1990s) for conversational media20:51 How healthcare is different from other subject matter22:13 HON Code and other earlier e-health standards more for top-down media23:05 Holes that HealthTrain attempts to fill24:21 Credibility of health information25:10 The 18 concepts of the HealthTrain Manifesto27:19 Survey of healthcare bloggers re: anonymity29:48 More on how healthcare organizations should operate in new era of transparency30:47 Support for HealthTrain Manifesto33:00 Where to read manifesto and list of supporters

A new name on the healthcare scene is Sage Software, which entered the market in September with its $565 million purchase of Emdeon Practice Services from Emdeon Corp. Who is Sage Software and what are the company’s plans for the Intergy brand name? At last week’s Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago, I sat down with Paul Stinson, Sage’s senior vice president of healthcare, to find out.

Audio quality isn’t the best because a lot of ambient noise made its way into the interview booths in the press room, but I don’t think it’s worse than listening to AM radio.

0:40 Background on acquisition and on Sage1:30 Sage’s history in accounting software2:40 Intergy’s history in radiology and imaging3:35 Sage’s market share4:00 View of radiology market as part of bigger healthcare picture5:30 Growth potential in EHR and size of customer base6:37 Target market8:00 Division of product line between Intergy and Medware9:24 Assessment of market for smallest practices11:45 Effect of Stark exemption on the market13:37 Effect of CCHIT certification on the market15:24 Evolution of market in next two years17:25 Continuing relationship with WebMD18:16 Growing interest in PHRs and providing information to patients19:08 Physicians warming to sharing scheduling information online20:55 Online communication with patients and e-prescribing22:53 Patient safety improvements and malpractice insurance rates23:40 Privacy and security issues

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